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Was needle panic in China a fake frenzy?

Were rumours the spark that sent thousands of angry Han Chinese protesters in Urumqi pouring into the streets last week?

Despite a heavy paramilitary police presence in Urumqi for several days after rumours of the syringe attacks, residents take the clampdown tactics in stride. So far, none of the attacks have been proven. (ANDY WONG / AP FILE PHOTO)

BEIJING–Were rumours the spark that sent thousands of angry Han Chinese protesters in Urumqi pouring into the streets last week?

Demonstrations by frightened Chinese erupted in the Xinjiang capital last week amid claims that the region's native Uighurs had launched a wave of politically motivated syringe attacks against Han Chinese.

But days after reports of the attacks in state media, credible evidence seems in short supply. Some are questioning whether there were any organized attacks at all.

"I don't think there's very much evidence to support the idea that there was any sort of campaign," says Gerald Groot, a specialist in Chinese studies at the University of Adelaide. "I've seen reports suggesting there could have been as many as 500 people who were stabbed. But there's really been nothing to show for it."

The government said more than 500 people claimed to have been attacked, but only 170 show any signs of injury. Of those, 22 were being monitored and none were expected to suffer repercussions, it said.

"It seems more like mass hysteria than reality to me," observed Groot.

Even China's state-run Xinhua News Agency dialled down its reporting of the alleged attacks.

"Some of those who said they had been stabbed actually suffered from mosquito stings and other psychogenic reasons," Xinhua said.

Other agency reports noted that of the four people officially charged last week, most were drug addicts involved in acts of plain criminality.

A man and a woman threatened a cab driver with a syringe while robbing him of about $100 to buy drugs. A man, 47, scuffled with police while trying to resist arrest and pricked an officer with a drug-filled syringe. And a 19-year-old man confessed to poking a woman in the buttocks "with a pin" at a fruit stall, Xinhua reported. The incidents occurred between Aug. 28 and 31.

"It's not clear why these incidents reported by Xinhua were considered `political' as opposed to `criminal,'" says Nicholas Bequelin, a keen observer of events in Xinjiang and senior researcher with Human Rights Watch. He said Chinese authorities had not substantiated claims the attacks were political.

But the fact rumours appear to have triggered last week's protests is proof positive tensions in Urumqi still loom large – despite upbeat reports in state media that the crisis of the summer has passed.

In July, the city was the scene of bloody rioting that claimed 197 lives – mostly Han Chinese – when local Uighurs exploded with fury. They were angered by reports that three Uighur workers had been killed in clashes with Han Chinese at a factory in southern China.

Rumours on the street suggested many more Uighurs had died there.

In the subsequent riots, Uighurs killed scores of Han Chinese in Urumqi. Then Han Chinese set out to avenge their dead.

Since then, Urumqi has been in a communications lockdown: the Internet has been suspended, text messaging has been interrupted and calls in and out of the region are sporadically blocked.

That, says Bequelin, has created an atmosphere ripe for rumour mongering. He said the Chinese authorities' "chokehold on information" has been a critical factor in the ongoing crisis.

"This has not only frustrated people, but helped spread rumours," he says, calling the communications clampdown "the first real-live test of what happens if you suspend Internet services for too long."

Bequelin says the Internet is a key security valve, allowing people to let off steam. Without it, "people decided they had to take to the streets to make themselves heard."

Last week, thousands publicly called for the firing of the region's strongman, Communist Party Secretary Wang Lequan – a friend and ally of President Hu Jintao. Wang has hung on, but two lesser figures were sacrificed: the city's Communist Party Secretary Li Zhi and the region's top police official, Liu Yaohua, were sent packing Sunday.

Angry Han Chinese in the city have claimed since the summer Chinese authorities have been too soft on Uighur rioters, who had the upper hand in the July clashes.

But authorities are also aware how important it is to try to maintain harmonious inter-ethnic relations in a country with at least 56 officially recognized minorities – the Han Chinese by far the biggest.

Against this backdrop, rumours of organized "syringe stabbings" were a powerful force in a vacuum of reliable information – especially in the tense aftermath of July's riots.

But reports yesterday suggested the Urumqi rumour mill is still running hot. "This is not over," one newspaper vendor in the city told a British journalist. "They are going round pouring sulphuric acid in people's faces now."

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